The GLORIO Fall 2018 Anime Guide – Part 1

Woe is us! The fall season is right around the corner, but our most benevolent leader has abandoned us! With Jel out due to that thing he calls “real life” or whatever, yours truly is here to take over previewing duties. Because I have the work ethic of a the average koala, however, I decided to get some help from the rest of the Glorio crew. In true Glorio spirit, that means you won’t just have me, but Iro, Zigg and Gee whining about how everything looks terrible as well! Following hot on the trail of our season preview podcast, this post will provide some deeper insight into, amongst others, the spiritual successor to Tiger & Bunny, a new project by the creator of the Zero Escape games and a clash for the ages between the two biggest light novel adaptations in anime history.

As usual, this preview guide will include all of the new full length TV series and sequels we intend to watch and write about for at least one episode. Our guide does not include sequels we do not intend to watch and write about, continuing series from the previous season, shorts, movies, OVAs, specials, net videos, kids’ shows and stuff no one cares about. For a full overview of everything new, check your friendly neighborhood seasonal anime chart, but here’s at least a list of all the stuff we’ll not be covering in this guide.

DOUBLE DECKER!

Gee:Double Decker aims to be the spiritual successor to Sunrise’s 2011 hit Tiger & Bunny and boy does it show. Masakazu Katsura’s distinctive style makes a return to immediately aesthetically link the two shows. Throw in an over the top anime version of America and a story about superhero cops fighting against a newfound breed of super powered criminal, and you can already see the Tiger & Bunny DNA at work. Alas, Tiger & Bunny and Rage of Bahamut director Keiichi Sato isn’t returning for this one, but based on the preview episode they released, there’s enough here to look forward to. If anything makes this truly the spiritual successor it claims to be though, it’s going to be its unique usage of CG for its action scenes in the same vein as its predecessor. It’s certainly an interesting design choice that I think we’re all at least curious to see how it pans out.

Iro: I actually watched the early preview episode they put out for this, and I was pleasantly surprised, despite having never seen a lick of Tiger & Bunny related stuff in my life. I’m usually up for buddy cop stories, goofy anime versions of America, and Yuuki Hayashi soundtracks; this show’s got all three.

Zigg:Although I was never a Tiger & Bunny superfan I enjoyed its breerzy, bright take on super-heroics, and though this is obviously a bit more noirish it seems to share that goofy pulp sensibility. Not sure about some of that CG but that brassy soundtrack more than compensates.

The Girl in Twilight

Aqua:When Japan’s first all-anime network Animax turned ten years old, it celebrated by funding an anime spin-off of Kurt Wimmer’s cyberpunk vampire clusterfuck Ultraviolet — a crossover I had never even heard of until I accidentally stumbled upon it researching The Girl in Twilight. If that is any indication of what we should expect going into Animax’ 20th anniversary project, we might as well give up while we’re ahead. Luckily, The Girl in Twilight has one trick up its sleeve — Kotaro Uchikoshi, the mad genius behind the excellent Zero Escape series, gets a credit for the “story concept”. Whether that means he handed screenwriter Shougo Yasukawa a detailed outline for one of the brain-melting rollercoasters he calls a plot or just had a cursory glance at the script remains to be seen, though. Past experiences have taught us however that beloved professionals being credited as the original creator of an anime project is no more of an indicator of quality as vaunted directors being dubbed “executive producers” is, and Uchikoshi’s prior screenwriting track record isn’t exactly spotless either. Nevertheless, The Girl In Twilight‘s premise — something involving doppelgängers and alternate universes — already fits way more up our alley than Punch Line ever could. As long as Animax coughs up a budget befitting of an anniversary project, The Girl in Twilight should at least be in your radar. Just don’t Google it, unless you want a bunch of Kristen Stewarts plastered all over your screen.

Iro: The trailer’s CG doesn’t seem all that impressive, but I’m always at least a little interested in something with Kotaro Uchikoshi’s name slapped onto it. Unfortunately, he seems to be only credited for the “original concept”, so it’s unclear if we should be expecting any particularly wild twists and turns.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Aqua:Average schmuck dies in freak accident. Reincarnates into a world that is fundamentally indistinguishable from a late-2000’s browser MMO, or a Dungeons and Dragons campaign run by eight-year olds. Blessed onto him is an ability that appears useless to the needlessly complicated mechanics integral to bad worldbuilding. Shocking is the revelation that his ineptitude is but a facade. Levels are gained. Frames of reference are narrowed. New vocabularies are written as wrappings for nothing but thin air. Deeply rooted chauvinistic entitlement and fragile egocentrism are satisfied with near-erotic excess. Consistency is key. A pig in a cage. On antibiotics.

Iro: Based on my findings, this is Just Another Isekai Story. The slime thing seems like it’s just a gimmick to get you in, since apparently the main character is like Ditto from Pokémon and can just transform into anything and have any power like any other boring, overpowered isekai hero. It might be “good for isekai“, but it remains to be seen if that means it’s actually something worth watching.

Zombieland Saga

Aqua: Every day we thread closer to a world where anime can no longer exist without the patronage of Cygames. Like some kind of modern house of Medici, the gatcha game overlords have funneled their seemingly limitless supply of money into some of the most exquisite anime projects of the last few years These include Rage of Bahamut: Genesis, Yuri!!! On Ice and Made in Abyss, all shows characterized by a distinct lack of compromise both in an artistic and a budgetary sense. Suffice to say, I can’t imagine the lengths an animation studio would have to go to to claim such a vaunted privilege. That makes it rather disenchanting to see MAPPA winning Cygames’ favor by essentially luring the two biggest milking cows in modern pop culture into the same stable. Idols versus zombies? That’s what you want to spend your blank check on? With no source material or official summary out there, we’ve only got a trailer and the pedigree of its crew to work with here, and in both cases, information is vague and scarce to say the least. We’ll have to see if Zombieland Saga ends up being worth the mystery it’s coated itself in, or being the equivalent of burying a thousand dollars in the hope it will sprout a money tree.

Iro: Just about anything MAPPA’s involved with demands at least a cursory glance, and there’s some decent staff on this one. I’m just not sure how they can spin a zombie story that hasn’t been done a hundred times already.

The Space Between the Sky and Sea

Aqua: A lot of shows on this list are fascinating to me. Not this one, though. In fact, the only thing that mildly interests me about Sora to Umi no Aida is the game it’s based on. I’ve been thinking about what a mobile game about space fishing would even look like from the moment I first heard of it. What do you even collect? Pictures of girls fishing, or space fish? Then I realized that not every mobile game is a gatcha game, and Sora to Umi no Aida is in fact just an arcade-y schmup of sorts. If anything, that means we shouldn’t be expecting a massive cast of poorly designed teenyboppers clocking in for their five-second cameos — looking at you there, Kantai Collection — and in stead can focus on a slightly smaller cast of poorly designed teenyboppers. There’s precedent for slice-of-life shows about girls with outlandish hobbies becoming critical darlings — just look at Girls und Panzer or A Place Further Than The Universe — but these shows also had talented directors and writers attached to them. This show has the guy who wrote Yumeiro Pâtissière. Just sayin’.

Iro: You tell me that a show is about Space Fishermen, and you have my attention. Wait, you mean it’s a cast of all young girls, and it’s based on a mobile game? You’ve immediately lost it again. I mean, I guess TMS has to make something boring to balance the scales after MEGALOBOX and Lupin III…

Zigg:You say ‘space fishing’ and I immediately think ‘that’s the sort of high-concept rubbish I can get behind!’. But then you say ‘adapted from a mobile game’ and ‘full of schoolgirls GANBARE-ing to success’ and I say ‘well, maybe I’m not so interested after all’. I guess this could be a breezy, fun slice of life with a splash of space adventure for colour? Really not getting my hopes up though.

Gakuen Basara

Game Adaptation by Brain’s Base Air Date: 10/4/2018

Director: Minoru OoharaSeries Composition: Kouji Miura

Gee:I honestly don’t have much to say about this. I loved Sengoku Basara but it was the very definition of a time and place anime. To do a high school AU this long after the original aired is both confusing and entirely unnecessary. Not that there isn’t potential for some pretty good Sengoku Basara related gags, but then why wait this long? It’s been too long that I can’t imagine there’s a latent Sengoku Basara demographic to capitalize on and unless they’re building up to a new series, I don’t really get what this aims to accomplish. Even if it’s a case of the latter, I’m not even sure Sengoku Basara has any play anymore in 2018 which makes the existence of this anime all the more confounding.

Zigg: I enjoyed Sengoku Basara quite a bit, but it was definitely a joke which had a shelf life, and I felt pretty good after two seasons and a movie. Now they’re bringing it back in the most hackenyed of setting, the high school AU, and I can’t really work out what for. I guess curiosity will drive me to check it out, but it all seems totally unnecessary and unimaginative.

Aqua:There’s always one of these, isn’t there? Some generic light novel romantic comedy has its dedicated fanbase of five people coming out of the woodwork to moan about how the trailers make their precious property look like something it isn’t, or about how every other anime preview guide misrepresents it as, well, a generic light novel romantic comedy. Rather than frustrations, Seishun Buta Yarou‘s announcement mostly just elicits questions. One, who the heck carts out Playboy bunnies as the ultimate in horny teen boy wish fulfillment? What is this, 2006? And how the heck does one manage to write eight full light novels around the premise of “guy sees his popular upperclassman dressed as a Playboy bunny but no else does”? This almost feels like a throwback to the days of low-concept, low-stakes heroine carousels like Haganai or SaeKano — except if the fans are to be believed, Seishun Buta Tarou is anything but that. The original light novel was written by Hajime Kamoshida, who also screenwrote the sterling Just Because!, so perhaps they could be on to something? Oh. No, wait, that’s an annoying little sister character who tries to sneak into our protagonist’s bed. Forget I said anything.

Ms. Vampire Who Lives In My Neighborhood

Aqua:Lo and behold, mortals! The genre deconstruction that will dig one of anime’s oldest chestnuts out of the swamp of its own creation! It’s a slice-of-life comedy about high school girls being suspiciously nice to each other… except with a vampire! Oh the originality! Brace yourself for wacky characters, such as “clingy lesbian who wants to have her blood sucked”! Laugh along with high-larious antics such as “vampire can’t cook because all she drinks is blood”! Gasp at the provocative subversions of established archetypes, such as “What if the bicentennial vampire was actually a huge otaku?”! Raise your eyebrow ever so slightly at seeing a Twilight reference in 2018! This show is so universally appealing that anyone could’ve written it! Don’t miss out on this exclusive opportunity to find out what Japanese school girls truly act like! Voted the third most anticipated anime of October 5th, 2018, this vampiric spectacle will literally suck the blood out of your brains and turn you into a mindless ghoul! What more could you possibly ask for?

Aqua: For years now, Nio Nakatani’s slow-burn romance has been the most visible alternative to the often othering public face of the yuri genre. These last few years, mainstream yuri has been such a cavalcade of dishonest tripe, it’s no wonder that most people desperate for good faith representation have run off into the arms of idol franchises like Love Live! and Bang! Dream — which at the very least create a world that can be safely observed through pink-tinted glasses without constant reminders of the fact that anime is still ruled by the straight, male gaze. Bloom Into You emanates the same liberty and positivity, but manages to do so without twisting reality into some kind of la-la-land version of itself. It is unambiguously romantic in the way that only stories written with the noblest of intentions can be, beaming with warmth and care for its characters, who gracefully come of age in a world where relationships enhance, rather than define their personal stories. It is incredibly important to me because it dares to call into question the concepts and aspects so many other romances — both real and fictional — take for granted. What does it mean to love someone? How much does your love for another define who you are? Where does friendship end and romance begin? It is queer in the broadest sense of the word, not just exploring the blossoming relationship between two girls, but exploring intense feelings of attraction that are both divergent from the norm and hard to define in their own right. Is that enough praise for you? Heck, this manga’s so good I still can’t really believe it’s getting an anime. Judging by the trailer, TROYCA seem to be giving Bloom Into You all the love it needs, and with Jukki Hanada on writing duties, they’ve pretty much got the perfect guy for the job. I’ll be inconsolable if they still manage to screw this up.

Iro: I watched Kase-san and Morning Glories recently, so a tiny part of me is thinking, “More of that stuff? Haven’t we had enough yet?” But upon a mite further consideration, the answer is no, we haven’t. It may not appeal to me personally, but it doesn’t have to, and how many totally-forgettable “normal” romance shows had to exist before this? It’s becoming a world where a fancy-pants big budget studio like TROYCA (Aldnoah.Zero,Re-Creators) is making LGBT romance, and that’s broadly a good thing. And frankly, better we get this kind of fluffy faff over the more creepy male gaze type stuff.

Zigg:Like Iro, I also watched Kase-san and Morning Glories recently and was charmed by its sugar-coated shoujo fantasy, to the point where I’d definitely be down for more sun-dappled lesbian romance if done well. The presence of Jukki Hanada on series composition also bodes well given his work on recent GLORIO favourite A Place Further Than The Universe. Romance isn’t really my genre but I’ll give some time to this one.

Hinomaru Sumo

Hinomaruzumou

Manga Adaptation by Gonzo Air Date: 10/5/2018

Director: unknownSeries Composition: unknown

Aqua:You’re asking me if I want to watch a bunch of eerily muscular teenage boys in nappies pushing each other until one of them falls over? You bet your ass I don’t!

Sword Art Online: Alicization

Aqua: Four cours. Fifty-two episodes. I almost feel melancholy, knowing that I won’t be there to experience it. Ever since I broke down and purged my social media feeds of any mention of the putrefaction that is Sword Art Online, I’ve been living in an entirely different world. A better world. Part of me, some sick voice in my head, wants me to plug back in, to go back to combing the Internet in search of new fuel to throw on the incandescent fire that burns within me. Yes, I must admit still think of Sword Art Online a lot. I am curious. What possible ways could it have come up with to get even worse? Or what if it got better? Oh God, what if it got good? I can’t bear to entertain the thought. I could try to find out, but I’m afraid. So I won’t. I’ll stay here, right where I am. Alone and at peace. Waiting for the day when I can finally get this abomination of a show out of my head for good.

Iro: We’ll just never be free, will we?

Zigg: I think as a collective we’ve said all we want to say about Sword Art Online at this point, but it’s tough to deny the colossal shadow it’s cast over anime and the anime fandom. With that said, last year’s Ordinal Scale movie was without a doubt one of the worst things I’ve ever seen so I think my hopes are even lower than they would otherwise be.

Aqua: The daddy of trashy light novels may be dominating the headlines with its return, but its the granddaddy that truly deserves the attention. A Certain Magical Index has a lot in common with Sword Art Online — both franchises have codified virtually all of the tropes that define their respective generations of light novels, both have spawned decidedly more girly spin-offs that blow the original out of the water, and both define the medium, for good or for ill, in ways few other shows can. Yet whereas Sword Art Online is the very embodiment of the toxin it spread across the medium as a whole, Index is something even rarer — It’s a show that, at times, outwitted the cavalcade of crappy urban fantasies that tried to follow in its footsteps before these shows even got made. It wears its own ridiculousness with a knowing nod and wink, rather than with pride, and in a medium rife with shows that risk disappearing up their own asses, a little bit of self-awareness gets you a long way. And what a long way it’s been. After a bunch of nigh incomprehensible adventures involving wizards, ESPers, clones, angels, kung fu nuns, and everything in between, we last left the world of Index as the conflict between Academy City and the Catholic Church started to escalate into all-out war because of… err, Look, all I know is that there were a bunch of lunatics dressed in primary colours who want Touma dead? I think? Oh, and Accelerator is a good guy now, apparently? Gee, it’s really been seven years, huh?

Zigg:Look, Index is arguably Patient Zero in the modern trend of outrageously shallow scifi/fantasy light novel adaptations, and the second season was an utter garbage fire. But there’s still something inherently likable about hapless Touma and his supporting cast, and at least the show generally doesn’t take itself seriously to the point of ridiculousness. The unexpected excellence of A Certain Scientific Railgun season 2 also gives me some hope this may punch above its weight.

I am Being Threatened By The No. 1 Most Desirable

Aqua: Every time a new boy’s love anime comes around, I get the same thought. Why don’t I give these shows a shot for once, in stead of whining about LGBT representation in anime all the time? Then I read the premise and realize men who love men have it even worse than women who love women when it comes to respectful portrayal. The translation we’ve provided here isn’t official, but it about sums up what Dakaretai Otoko 1-ni Odosare Imasu is about — our main character, a veteran idol, loses his position as Japan’s most desirable man to a hotshot rookie, goes to drown his sorrows, only to be caught on camera and blackmailed by the hotshot rookie, who also turns out to be a crazed stalker desperate for some physical intimacy. You can probably guess what happens next. I’ll leave it to the experts to figure out whether fictional romances based on blackmail, possessiveness and sexual assault have any right to exist, but I’m not going to apologize for saying stuff like this getting anime adaptations couldn’t be any further from what the LGBT community actually needs.

so many colors in the future what a wonderful world

Aqua: Yup, that is not some third-rate “doge” meme, that is actually what they’re calling it. P.A. Works’ prior efforts to mix up their usual small-town Japan vibes with the supernatural have been questionable at best — Glasslip, anyone? — but Iroduku, with its intriguing cocktail of family drama, time travel and just a teensy bit of magic feels oddly refreshing. Perhaps comparing it to a young adult novel would be the safest bet, even though I’ve no real points of reference to justify that comparison with. Perhaps its the clumsy, yet sincere depression analogy? In any case, P.A. Works’ stuff is always worth giving a shot, even if Yuuko Kakihara’s involvement might be a bit of a red flag. Tsukigakirei and Digimon Adventure Tri, her last two anime original projects, both got off to a great start but completely collapsed past the midway point. Third time’s the charm, perhaps, though it must be said that as a mood piece, the former’s merits especially are not up for discussion. The question whether anime needs another decent-to-good melancholy mood piece is something else entirely, however. The medium’s had quite a fill of these these last few seasons, and few of them have actually managed to make any kind of lasting impression. Will Iroduku‘s manic pixie dream grandma be enough to inject a well-established style with some substance? Only time — zing! — will tell.

Iro: Looks like P.A Works is back to their usual tricks after taking a break with Sirius The Jaeger, eh? That’s not necessarily a bad thing however, as only the venerable Kyoto Animation (who rarely grace the small screen with their presence these days) can match them in the “melancholy young women hanging out in provincial Japan” genre. The idea here is that a magical girl teen mage in The Future!! is having trouble seeing the (presumably figurative) colors of the world, and so is sent back in time by her grandmother to hang out with teen granny and learn that life is worth living, or somesuch. Seems like it’s got potential for some good ol’ heartful emotion and all that.

Radiant

Aqua:Here’s something I didn’t know. When we say “shounen manga”, we generally do so to refer to manga like Naruto, One Piece or My Hero Academia — shouty, monomythical, action-packed stories rife with almighty melodrama and the power of friendship — and not necessarily to the broader demographic these stories generally cater to, as the term is used in Japan. But in France, there’s a specific term for the former, so as to not confuse them with any old manga aimed at boys. “Nekketsu”, or “hot-blooded” is the term they’ve chosen, and the French love nekketsu stories so much they’ve started producing them of their own. Radiant is the most popular of those, and Japan wouldn’t be Japan if it didn’t happily reimport anything that even remotely smells like foreign appreciation for its own culture. Nevertheless, to see it getting a relatively high-profile adaptation such as this one is nice to see. Judging by the trailer, Radiant combines the traditional tropes of nekketsu with a distinctly more European aesthetic and if the Internet is to be believed, author Tony Valente doesn’t shy away from a political message here or there. Lerche are exactly the kind of jobbers you’d want on a potentially never-ending project such as this one, though Seiji Kishi’s involvement has me thinking they’re not exactly in it for the long run for now. Guy works so many projects I get the feeling he might have some commitment issues. Then again, Radiant is in the unique situation of not being clutched in the suffocating grip that is publication in a mainstream shounen magazine, so perhaps there is no long run at all? Perhaps this could be, like, a coherent, finished story with a beginning, middle and end for once? A man can dream.

Zigg:It’s always intriguing when the anime industry decides to work from something from outside of Japan’s shores, and the fact this is essentially a European pastiche of Japanese tropes makes this extra interesting as a sort of double-recursive adaptation. I’m not a superfan of this kind of show, but this one might be worth watching purely for the academic intrigue.

Goblin Slayer

Aqua: Light novels are ever so slowly evolving into a subgenre of fanfic, many of the most popular ones at the moment essentially amounting to fictionalized accounts of the author’s own adventures in some video game or another with the serial numbers off. Goblin Slayer, too, reads like some kind of gaming urban legend circa 2005, a story functional World of Warcraft addicts would tell each other about in hush tones — the tale of a strange, experienced player who’d keep butchering nothing but low-level goons. Like Glorio blog favourite Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Goblin Slayer portrays a dangerous world where death looms around every corner and vile creatures swarm the woods and caves, free to rape and slaughter as the please. But whereas Grimgar used the darkness of its world to drive home the point that video games — or stories blatantly inspired by and structured like them — will never come of age as long as they keep granting the player the power to control and defy said darkness, Goblin Slayer seems to be making the capital mistake of doing exactly that. The trailer alone — from tracking the titular slayer’s body count, to refusing to even deign any of the characters with names — makes more than obvious Goblin Slayer‘s intention to be a patriarchic power fantasy through and through. You know what kind of anime this’ll be when all the discourse surrounding it at the moment concerns whether or not they’ll keep the graphic rape scenes intact.

Zigg: Every season it seems like we’re racing faster and faster to the bottom of the barrel. ‘From the screenwriter of Oreimo!’ hardly inspires confidence either.

-==-

That’s all the anime we’ve got time for today! Don’t worry if your most anticipated didn’t make the cut, as we’ll be back this time next week for part 2 or our preview, featuring a friendly skeleton, a clingy maid, a giant superhero, a bunch of cute boys, even more cute girls and a million Arthurs. But for now, which shows are you looking forward to the most? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

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5 thoughts on “The GLORIO Fall 2018 Anime Guide – Part 1”

Looks like it’s not going to be a popular opinion, but definitely looking forwards to SAO III. Watching Index III hopefully because that means the rest of Railgun will eventually make it to the screen.

The rest of the stuff in this preview…. ranges from “meh, sure, I’ll check it out” to “BURN IT WITH FIRE”.

I’ve read Goblin Slayer novel and manga. You should give it a bit more chance. It does have a good story where the world IS in itself a game played between two ‘gods’. The tagline for the novel is after all: “He does not anyone roll the dices”.